Eknath Easwaran: Original Goodness

This week we're pleased to bring you an excerpt from the Winter 2015 Blue Mountain Journal. In this excerpt, entitled "Original Goodness", Easwaran talks about the core of goodness in every person. He uses the metaphor of the lotus, one of our favorite images of his, to inspire us all to embrace that core of goodness.

Just half an hour’s walk from my home was a lotus pond so thickly overlaid with glossy leaves and gleaming rose and white blossoms that you could scarcely see the water. In Sanskrit this exquisite flower is called pankaja, “born from the mud.” In the murky depths of the pond a seed takes root. Then a long, wavering strand reaches upward, groping through the water toward the glimmer of light above. From the water a bud emerges. Warmed by the sun’s rays, it slowly opens out and forms a perfect chalice to catch and hold the dazzling light of the sun. 

The lotus makes a beautiful symbol for the core of goodness in every human being. Though we are born of human clay, it reminds us, each of us has the latent capacity to reach and grow toward heaven until we shine with the reflected glory of our Maker. 

Early in the third century, a Greek Father of the Church, Origen, referred to this core of goodness as both a spark and a divine seed–a seed that is sown deep in consciousness by the very fact of our being human, made in the image of our Creator. “Even though it is covered up,” Origen explains, 

because it is God that has sowed this seed in us, pressed it in, begotten it, it cannot be extirpated or die out; it glows and sparkles, burning and giving light, and always it moves upward toward God.

Meister Eckhart seized the metaphor and dared take it to the full limits it implies: 

The seed of God is in us. Given an intelligent and hard-working farmer, it will thrive and grow up to God, whose seed it is, and accordingly its fruits will be God-nature. Pear seeds grow into pear trees, nut seeds into nut trees, and God-seed into God. 

“Its fruit will be God-nature”! What promise could be more revolutionary? Yet Eckhart, like other great mystics of the Church before and after him, does no more than assure us of his personal experience. The seed is there, and the ground is fertile. Nothing is required but diligent gardening to bring into existence the God-tree: a life that proclaims the original goodness in all creation. 

The implications of this statement are far-reaching. Rightly understood, they can lift the most oppressive burden of guilt, restore any loss of self-esteem. For if goodness is our real core, goodness that can be hidden but never taken away, then goodness is not something we have to get. We do not have to figure out how to make ourselves good; all we need do is remove what covers the goodness that is already there. 

To be sure, removing these coverings is far from easy. Having a core of goodness does not prevent the rest of personality from occasionally being a monumental nuisance. But the very concept of original goodness can transform our lives. It does not deny what traditional religion calls sin; it simply reminds us that before original sin was original innocence. 

That is our real nature. Everything else–all our habits, our conditioning, our past mistakes–is a mask. A mask can hide a face completely; like that iron contraption in Dumas’s novel, it can be excruciating to wear and nearly impossible to remove. 

But the very nature of a mask is that it can be removed. This is the promise and the purpose of all spiritual disciplines: to take off the mask that hides our real face. 

The Memorization Challenge

One of the real benefits of passage meditation is that we can choose the passages we meditate on. One of the related challenges? Memorization.

This past week we've been talking about memorization tips within the YA Blog Team and are eager to hear tips from all of you! Though we've never talked about it, we were surprised at many of us tried the same strategies and also each picked up some new ideas to try. Here are some highlights from our conversation:

• Memorize just a line a day – one line is such an easy amount and in no time you'll have a whole passage!
• Walk while you memorize – something about pacing and reciting the words (silently or out loud) can really internalize the cadence of the words.
• Schedule in memorization time – block off time in your calendar to memorize, treat it like any appointment and hold it aside. Try for regular "memorization appointments" like the first Sunday of the month.
• Always have the passage near by – whether on a notecard in your pocket, or in your phone or day planner, have the passage near by so you can review lines when you find yourself with unexpected down time.

We are really eager to hear your ideas! In the comments below, share your strategies for memorization.

We also wanted to share the excerpt below from a past Blue Mountain Journal which featured some great tips on memorization.

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Excerpt from the Blue Mountain Journal Summer 2009:

For a visual approach, look for patterns. As an example, take the passage entitled “United in Heart,” from the Rig Veda:

May we be united in heart.
May we be united in speech.
May we be united in mind.
May we perform our duties
As did the wise of old.

May we be united in our prayer.
May we be united in our goal.
May we be united in our resolve.
May we be united in our understanding.
May we be united in our offering.
May we be united in our feelings.
May we be united in our hearts.
May we be united in our thoughts.
May there be perfect unity amongst us.

For the first verse of this passage, all one really has to learn is the main phrase, three other words, and an ending sentence.

If you’d like to make use of kinesthetics, try writing the passage, line by line or stanza by stanza. Start by looking at the first line. Then write it out from memory. Check it. If what you wrote was not accurate, write the corrected version. Once you know the first line, try the same process with the whole first stanza.

For an auditory method, try listening to Easwaran reciting any passage in the collection of MP3s found on the website.

For a method which combines auditory and kinesthetic features, try declaiming the passage, like an actor trying out new lines. It can help to walk or pace around while reciting the lines. Gestures can help. But note: it is best to select some private venue for this method! 

When you are memorizing a line or a stanza, checking helps. This is called “feedback.” We learn by means of feedback.

It also helps to focus on small chunks – one or two lines, for example, rather than a whole stanza.

Returning to the passage later helps us retain it. This is how we can transfer a line or stanza from short-term memory into the long-term. 

A Passage for December

Our last two posts have been excerpts from Easwaran’s book Strength in the Storm. The first was a chapter from the book in which Easwaran discusses transforming negative forces within and around us into positive forces. The second is from the afterward of that book, written by Christine Easwaran, in which she provides us with several practical ways that we can become forces for peace.

Christine’s first suggestion for becoming a “force for peace” is to remember the words of “The Prayer of Saint Francis.” Christine writes, “Keep this prayer in front of you. Put it on your desk. Don’t let it become stale. Write it out. Memorize it. Repeat it to yourself whenever you feel overwhelmed. Give it to your friends. Keep it in your wallet. Teach it to your children. Recite it out loud. Put it on your refrigerator door.”

So, for this month we thought it would be great to follow Christine’s lead and memorize or refresh “The Prayer of Saint Francis.” And bonus! Christine has given us some great ideas on how to do so: write it out, keep it with you and put it some place where you will see it often.

“The Prayer of Saint Francis” is the passage Easwaran always recommends when we begin our practice. Its guidance for how to live our lives as forces for peace is both timeless and practical.

As always, we love to hear from you! Share in the comments how you feel that meditating on this passage might help you become a force for peace.

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The Prayer of Saint Francis – Saint Francis of Assisi

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that are born into eternal life.